Imagining the unimaginable

Never is the first contemporary novel in more than a decade from master storyteller Ken Follett

More than a thriller, Never is an immersive adventure that contemplates the imminent threat of World War 3. Exclusively for Maverick Life, The Reading List spoke to author Ken Follett about his latest book.

Your novel feels almost too real, too close to home. Did playing out the near-apocalypse scenarios that inform Never make you feel uneasy – or even terrified – about our realworld future?

We have been a bit complacent in recent years because we thought the Cold War was over. And the Cold War may be over, but all the dangers are still there.

All the major countries are still armed to the teeth and, as I discovered while writing Never, it is so easy for a minor incident to turn into a major incident and for situations to escalate rapidly beyond all control. It’s all too easy to imagine a time when people will do their best to resolve a situation and fail.

Never

The end of (no spoilers!) is excruciating yet utterly believable. Is the end of the world near?

Well, I certainly hope not, but I think there is a general atmosphere of danger and tension in the world that is much greater than I have ever known it. We’re not just at risk from nuclear attacks, but also things like a virus or climate change.

The book revolves around a woman US president. Did you draw insights from any real-life politicians?

No, all of the characters in the book are completely fictional, especially the national leaders… I didn’t think it would work to have real people in this story.

I did have a great deal of help from people who have been involved in politics at very high levels and it was this that informed the military or diplomatic positions taken by various characters.

This is the most realistic story I’ve ever written and I do think the real-life presidents and prime ministers would make much the same decisions as the characters in the book.

The sections of the book set in Chad were fascinating. I imagine these were challenging sections to research?

Unfortunately, Chad is not a very safe country to visit, and I was also writing during the pandemic when travel was very difficult, but I was able to find some wonderful photographs online. Google Earth is also a hugely helpful tool for authors as you can see a satellite picture of anywhere on the planet.

So, when I was writing about Kiah and Abdul, two of my characters, crossing the Sahara Desert in a rickety old bus, I was able to look at all the places they travel through on Google Earth and I was able to describe them accurately.

Never

runs to 800 pages, but it’s an exceptionally taut novel at the same time. What’s the key to achieving this control of the story?

I usually spend about a year to 18 months working on a novel, researching and planning, before I even start writing. However, for Never I wrote the outline and the first draft in about a year, and the rewrite in three months, which is warp speed for me.

The last time I felt so full of ideas was when I was writing Eye of the Needle, almost half a century ago.

In the preface you write that you’ve come to believe that World War 1 was a tragic accident, “a war that nobody wanted”. Never follows a pattern of political decision-making that’s ominously in the same vein. Can you see a political break such as Brexit, for example, taking the West down the same path?

All the bad things that people predicted would happen after Brexit are happening. British companies are having a terrible trouble exporting, their goods are delayed at customs … and it’s also difficult for European countries to export to us.

And, of course, Northern Ireland is rioting because, clearly, they cannot be part of the UK in the way they used to be because Ireland, the South, is in the European Union and the North is not and something is going to have to be done about that… I believe that Brexit is the beginning of a long, slow decline for my country. I hope I’m wrong.

We’ve observed a trend toward larger novels over the past few years. What do you think is driving this trend?

If a novel is good, people want it to go on forever. And a long novel is much more satisfying. You feel you have lived with the characters, not just read about them. If a long novel is boring, of course it’s better short. DM168

Never by Ken Follett is published by Pan Macmillan SA (R440).